


our story will be a happy one (if i have any say)

by izadreamer



Series: Internal Tangles [5]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, Tangled (2010), Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, During Canon, Emotional Hurt, Friends to Enemies, Gen, Post-Betrayal, Resolution, Self-Reflection, and the aftermath of that, eugene just wants his loved ones to be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 03:46:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14866002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izadreamer/pseuds/izadreamer
Summary: Happily ever after only exists in stories, Eugene knows, but he hoped that they’d at least manage to stay happy.





	our story will be a happy one (if i have any say)

Eugene has never felt so helpless before in his life.

He has known helplessness, of course; he has known it his whole life. The inability to do whatever he wished, the awful gnawing of hunger at his gut, the pit in his stomach when he’s disarmed in battle. That awful sense of despair and frustration, when Gothel drove a dagger into his side and shut heavy chains around his wrists.

This a different sort of helplessness, though, and he’s not sure he likes it. Being on the outside, watching the world crumble around those he cares about. Watching everything fall apart, and being able to do nothing but just… be there. As if words could fix everything, as if being an open ear and confidante is enough.

It should be enough. It used to be enough, back in the early weird days, when Rapunzel’s hair had just grown long and her main worry was how she was going to hide it from her parents. More recently, however… after the snowstorm, and the fall of the tower, and with the king locking Rapunzel in her room…

It’s not enough, not anymore. Not for Eugene. He’s not the type to just sit back and watch bad things happen to those he cares about. And yet, that is exactly what he’s been forced to do. Stand back and try and do damage control, watching as everything spirals into chaos.

In a few hours, they march on Old Corona. They attack the home of a fourteen-year-old boy—a fourteen-year-old traitor and kidnapper and attempted murderer.

Eugene picks up a sword from the table and wonders. What will this accomplish, in the end? Varian in chains, the best case scenario, but none of them will feel better for it.

Eugene’s hands are tied on this matter. He holds the sword up to the light and watches his face in the reflection. The face on a thousand wanted posters. The face of a former thief. The face of a man who can do nothing.

That day, only a few months ago, when the snowstorms came and the King and Queen nearly died, and Rapunzel made choices she should never have been forced to make—he thinks that is when it all went wrong. They were so happy, before then. Rapunzel was gaining confidence in her role as Princess, Eugene in his life at the castle, Cassandra growing more certain of her place. And then the snowstorm hit and Rapunzel chose her kingdom over a friend and a legend over reality, and never quite managed to trust herself since. Bold and brave, and then reality came knocking, and she’s been trying to face her problems ever since, trying and trying to regain the confidence and bravery that once came so easily to her.

It hurts, it hurts so much, to watch her struggle. To watch her try, again and again, but always falter. He can’t help her with this. He can’t understand the kind of burden it must be, the weight of a thousand lives on the back of one person, the choices she must make to save the majority over all. Eugene—he feels bad for Varian, really he does, but he can’t help but hate him a little too, for what he has done to Rapunzel. She came so close to regaining her confidence, and then Varian came and smashed it into a million pieces in the same instant he stole the Sundrop Flower.

This whole situation… it’s a mess. It’s an awful, terrible mess, and the most Eugene can do is react, rather than act. He is not a part of this plot, this moment in Rapunzel’s story. Varian was not his friend, not the one he hurt. Varian is nothing but a distant fan to Eugene, a once-kind boy who has turned into a nightmare. But Varian is Rapunzel’s enemy, Rapunzel’s problem, and no matter how much Eugene wishes he could take this burden from her, he can’t. He can’t.

The most he can do is stay with her. No matter what happens, no matter what befalls them—Eugene will be here always, patient to the end. If he cannot help Rapunzel win the battle, then he’ll help her pick up the pieces.

Either way, he won’t make her face this alone. Happily ever after only exists in stories, Eugene knows, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t at least try for happy. They can do it. It is Rapunzel, daring, beautiful Rapunzel; she can do absolutely anything.

He slides the sword, sharpened and gleaming, into the sheath at his side, and takes a deep breath. When he strides into the nearby room, Cassandra looks up from the battle map. Her eyes are cold as ice and just as flinty.

“Ready?” Cassandra asks.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Eugene replies honestly, and follows her into battle.

Even if he cannot make a difference, at least Eugene has tried. At this point, that’s all he can do.

It will have to be enough.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I love Eugene. I wish we had more focus on his thoughts during the finale. Like, what does he think of Varian, of the situation, of the toll it's taking on Rapunzel? So many questions. I tried my hand at finding the answers. 
> 
> [Link to Rec and Reblog?](http://izaswritings.tumblr.com/post/174645080902/title-our-story-will-be-a-happy-one-if-i-have) Also, if you have any questions or just want to talk, [my tumblr](http://izaswritings.tumblr.com) is always open!!
> 
> Any thoughts?


End file.
